Kazan, Russia, April 3, 2017. This Tuesday the capital of Tatarstan will see the two most decorated Russian clubs crossing their ways in the battle for a ticket to the Final Four of the 2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League – Men taking place in Rome. Belogorie BELGOROD claimed the most coveted European Volleyball trophy in 2014 and after that, Zenit KAZAN stood on top of the podium in 2015 and 2016 as well.

On Tuesday night, the rivals will clash in the Champions League for the second time in their history. Back in 2014, the ‘Lions’ from Belgorod beat Zenit KAZAN 3-1 in the semis before taking the gold medal match against Halkbank ANKARA to celebrate their third title in the competition.

Interestingly, quite recently, and namely on March 26, Zenit KAZAN and Belogorie BELGOROD crossed their ways in the Russian Superleague. The match was not that important for the teams’ position in the standing – Zenit KAZAN had already secured their first place and Belogorie BELGOROD could not improve on their fourth position. However, the fans from Belgorod witnessed a rather unique event: the legendary outside spiker Sergey Tetyukhin played together with his 16-year-old son Pavel. Zenit KAZAN ultimately won the match in three sets (25-15, 25-22, 25-20), bringing their winning streak to an unparalleled 33 matches. However, the players from Tatarstan have no doubts that the struggle for victory in the Champions League will be much more intense and tough.

“The significance of the Russian championship match was not big and earthshattering, so to speak. It was some kind of a pre-battle where both teams tested each other’s defence. As for the Champions League, our only aim is a victory and we will play the best we can,” said the captain of Belogorie, Taras Khtey.

“The strengths of Belogorie BELGOROD are the serves and strong and steady performance of Dmitriy Muserskiy, who is the team’s top scorer. The way Zenit KAZAN will cope in particular with his attacks is one of the key elements that might determine who comes out on top in the upcoming fight,” said the libero of Zenit KAZAN, Alexey Verbov.